Scientists are well acquainted with failure. After all, it’s a foundational aspect of the scientific method. Every life-changing discovery was built on the back of unexpected obstacles, accidents, and failed experiments—some of which resulted in disaster. These unsuccessful attempts and unforeseen problems aren’t for naught. They lead to creative solutions and reveal crucial data that can move researchers one step closer to a breakthrough.
President Jeffrey R. Holland’s message about the power of a scientist’s hope when disaster strikes is included in this edition of the magazine in memory of his lasting impact on BYU. May we all heed his advice as we work to overcome stumbling blocks in the lab and in life.
Thomas Edison devoted ten years and all of his money to developing the nickel-alkaline storage battery at a time when he was almost penniless. Through that period of time, his record and film production was supporting the storage battery effort. Then one night the terrifying cry of fire echoed through the film plant. Spontaneous combustion had ignited some chemicals. Within moments all of the packing compounds, celluloid for records, film, and other flammable goods had gone up with a roar. Fire companies from eight towns arrived, but the fire and heat were so intense and the water pressure so low that the fire hoses had no effect. Edison was sixty-seven years old—no age to begin anew. His son Charles was frantic, wondering if he were safe, if his spirits were broken, and how he would handle a crisis such as this at his age. Charles saw his father running toward him. He spoke first.
He said, “Where’s your mother? Go get her. Tell her to get her friends. They’ll never see another fire like this as long as they live!”
At 5:30 the next morning, with the fire barely under control, he called his employees together and announced, “We’re rebuilding.” One man was told to lease all the machine shops in the area, another to obtain a wrecking crane from the Erie Railroad Company. Then, almost as an afterthought, he added, “Oh, by the way. Anybody know where we can get some money?”1
Virtually everything you now recognize as a Thomas Edison contribution to your life came after that disaster. Remember, “Trouble has no necessary connection with discouragement—discouragement has a germ of its own.”2
If you are trying hard and living right and things still seem burdensome and difficult, take heart. Others have walked that way before you.
In the gospel of Jesus Christ, you have help from both sides of the veil, and you must never forget that. When disappointment and discouragement strike—and they will—you remember and never forget that if our eyes could be opened, we would see horses and chariots of fire as far as the eye can see riding at reckless speed to come to our protection. They will always be there, these armies of heaven, in defense of Abraham’s seed.
Excerpts from a devotional address delivered by Jeffrey R. Holland on March 18, 1980, while he was serving as the Commissioner of the Church Educational System.
2. F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Crack Up (New Directions Publishing, 1945).